Saturday, May 29, 2010

Rochester Red Wings 6, Durham Bulls 4

Durham, NC - The Bulls fell behind early and could not crawl out of the hole as they fell to Rochester 6-4. Chris Richard had five hits including three doubles, but a late rally fell short as the Bulls drop to 27-22 on the season.

Left-hander Carlos Hernandez got the starting nod for the Bulls, but was erratic and walked four in just 4.1 innings of work while allowing six runs (five earned). A run crossed the plate in the first inning on a two-out error by shortstop Angel Chavez. In the second inning, the Red Wings struck for four runs behind RBI singles by Matt Tolbert and Toby Gardenhire in addition to RBI doubles by Matt Macri and Danny Valencia.

In a 5-0 hole entering the third inning, the Bulls came back with three runs of their own off Rochester righty Jeff Manship. A one-out bunt single by Elliot Johnson got things started, as he moved to third on a single by Chavez. Dan Johnson brought home Elliot Johnson with an RBI force out, and back-to-back doubles by Justin Ruggiano and Richard brought home a pair of runs to cut the deficit to 5-3.

The Red Wings got another run off Hernandez in the fifth inning, as Jose Morales brought home a run with an RBI single. Jason Cromer came on in place of Hernandez, getting a double-play ball to end the inning on his way to 2.0 scoreless innings of relief.

The score remained 6-3 until the seventh inning, when the Bulls pushed a run across on an Alvin Colina RBI single. That was all the offense they would muster, as Kyle Waldrop stopped the bleeding in the seventh inning before giving way to Anthony Slama who worked the final 1.1 innings to earn his 10th save. Manship earned his fourth win of the season, while Hernandez was tagged with the loss and saw his ERA rise to 3.00 for the first time since May 2.

The Bulls had their share of chances on the evening, but left 15 men on base while going just 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position.

The Red Wings have taken two of the first three games in the series, but the Bulls send their ace to the hill tomorrow in hopes of evening weekend set. RHP Jeremy Hellickson (7-2, 2.79) takes the hill looking for his league leading eighth win, he will be matched up against RHP Deolis Guerra (0-2 5.29) for Rochester.